snl

Jonah Hill returned to SNL this weekend, and while he doesn’t have any new films to promote (aside from his small part in last month’s Hail, Caesar!) until August, an appearance from Jonah Hill is always a welcome one. So, how did Hill do in his fourth outing as SNL host? More importantly, did Adam Grossman make an appearance? Read on for our ranking of this week’s sketches from best to worst.

It’s kind of amazing that Larry David has never hosted SNL, and up until recently he had never really appeared on the show, either (save for a couple of tiny appearances back in the ’80s). David only managed to get one sketch on the show in the year he spent writing for SNL back in 1984–85, but now, after Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm and a couple of cold open cameos as Bernie Sanders, David finally has his chance to host. How did he do? Read on for our ranking of this week’s sketches from best to worst.

The moment former Alaskan governor and 2008 Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin endorsed Donald Trump for President of the United States, you know the producers at SNL hurried to get Tina Fey on the phone. The beloved former cast member, who just hosted the show last month, famously took on the role of Palin eight years ago and many people believe that her scathing imitation actually did lasting harm to the real Palin’s political chances. In any case, this event allowed SNL to pair Fey’s Palin with Darrell Hammond‘s Trump. Thanks, reality!

With Star Wars: The Force Awakens star Adam Driver hosting 2016’s first episode of SNL, a Kylo Ren sketch of some kind was inevitable. After all, you don't get the actor who plays the villain in one of the biggest movies of all time to appear on your comedy variety show and not have him reprise that character. And we'll give the show this much: we never would have predicted a faux episode of Undercover Boss set on Starkiller Base, with the angry, murderous Kylo Ren going undercover amongst his troops as a radar technician named Matt.

It’s a testament to the staying power of certain public figures that they’ve been played by more than one SNL cast member over the years. People like Hillary Clinton, the former First Lady turned former Senator turned former Secretary of State turned current Democratic Presidential frontrunner, linger on long past Saturday Night Live cast rotations. So what is the show to do when one of its guest hosts used to play a vital and very much in the public eye politician back in the day? Put her on stage with the current version, of course.

Dual guest hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler brought a lot of magic to last night’s episode of SNL, but the former cast members and Sisters co-stars probably hit their peak with a sort-of-music-video about their “Dope Squad,” aka the team of perfectly ordinary people who make their lives better on a daily basis. And while they may be wearing tight leather outfits, wielding weapons, and posing dramatically in front of post-apocalyptic imagery, the subject matter is far more mundane…and then Amy Schumer shows up.

Sure, there are lots of kids and teens buying Star Wars: The Force Awakens toys, but a long, long time ago in a galaxy that is actually this one, Star Wars belonged to another group of nerds — and those nerds are not going to let today’s kids take ownership of their fandom so easily, especially when these kids don’t know that action figures should STAY. IN. THE. BOX.

Maybe you didn’t realize how much you missed Will Ferrell’s George W. Bush impression on SNL until the actor popped in for a surprise appearance during the cold open, delivering a State of the Union address on our current crop of GOP presidential hopefuls — which is essentially just Ferrell’s Dubbya roasting his fellow Republicans in an attempt to make an unprecedented bid for a third term as POTUS.

After taking a bit of a break from acting to make his directorial debut (and to have what I presume is a very adorable baby with Eva Mendes), Ryan Gosling is back. In addition to starring in upcoming films from Adam McKay and Shane Black, the actor is cementing his return with his SNL debut. Gosling can't keep a straight face through most of the episode, which delivers some really weird and delightful sketches with few disappointments. Read on for our ranking of this week's SNL sketches from best to worst.

With Star Wars: The Force Awakens less than a month away from release and anticipation reaching a feverish level unseen in movie fans since 1999, the timing is right for SNL to gently skewer the upcoming sequel. The sketch is really just an excuse for the cast to break out a bunch of impersonations they’ve obviously been keeping in their back pockets while letting them interact with actual Star Wars cast members, but c’mon, that’s all the excuse you need, really.

Ever the human punchline, Donald Trump has braved some of his staunchest comedy critics in pursuit of the 2016 presidency. The blowhard billionaire even made headlines with which SNL player would tackle the role in Season 41, but all bets are off when “The Donald” himself hosts an upcoming November outing.

Amy Schumer has had an incredible couple of years with her hit series Inside Amy Schumer, her collaboration with Judd Apatow for Trainwreck, and her upcoming HBO comedy special. When you’re this beloved, there’s one place you need to be: on the SNL stage. Schumer makes her SNL hosting debut tonight and absolutely kills it, delivering a complete 180 from whatever happened with last week's relentlessly humorless season premiere (can we just pretend this was the season premiere? OK). There’s so much to love in this consistently funny episode, where even the weakest sketch of the night is still quite delightful. Read on for this week’s sketches, ranked from best to worst.

SNL is back! Season 41 kicks off with famed tongue-wagging pop star Miley Cyrus pulling double duty as both host and musical guest, and regardless of how you feel about her music career, the last time Cyrus hosted was a total delight. New featured player Jon Rudnitsky makes his debut in the premiere, which leans heavy on the political content and offers a decent — though not nearly great — first outing for the season. Read on for our official ranking of this week's sketches!

Reese Witherspoon has had an interesting time lately: the producer of Gone Girl, nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Wild, and the recent star of the not-so-funny Hot Pursuit. But Witherspoon is funny — she’s also immensely charming and versatile (obviously), and she knows how to light up a room. Unfortunately, she’s not really the star of this week’s SNL, suffering from the same fate that befell Scarlett Johansson in last week’s underwhelming episode. Throughout the bulk of the episode, Witherspoon is more like a supporting player than the star, and I’m growing concerned about how terrible these female-hosted episodes have been lately and what that says about SNL in general.

Last night’s generally unremarkable episode of SNL peaked early when it took advantage of its proximity to Mother’s Day to do something kind of remarkable. As part of her opening monologue, guest host Reese Witherspoon declared that the show was going to mark the occasion by bringing each cast member out with his or her mother...and then forcing them to apologize for their childhood transgressions.

It’s not coincidence that Scarlett Johansson guest hosted SNL on the same weekend that Avengers: Age of Ultron opened in theaters, so of course the show had to do a Marvel sketch of some kind. And unlike the previous Avengers sketches cooked up for Chris Hemsworth and Jeremy Renner, this one is actually a pretty effective dig at the Marvel movie machine. More importantly, it’s very funny.